Butter Bing Butter Boom
I had a moment of clarity (ha!) this week that I just had to share with y’all…
BUTTER is the CHOCOLATE of savoury cooking!
It adds dimension to dishes, can be used as garnish or base, and as per a mind-blowing discovery I made courtesy of Antoni from the new Queer Eye on Netflix (Yas!)… It can even be tempered ala chocolate too!
Judging by his recent tempered butter dipped radishes post on insta, using a classic recipe from Eleven Madison Park and Cabot butter from Vermont (the same guys that make the world’s best cheddar!) it has become apparent to me that Antoni is into butter like I’m into butter…
And even though he’s been criticised in the press for making dishes that are too simple, he’s just reading the room right, instead of showing off his cooking chops. Antoni is a beautiful, kind-hearted man, and I won’t hear a bad word about him, thank you very much.
Now let’s extrapolate upon this butter:chocolate comparison.
If you’ve ever tried to cook with shitty chocolate, you’ll know that this is one area where you just don’t skimp. It splits, it curdles, it’s grainy, it throws out the flav… You get the picture. It’s exactly the same with butter. It may feel like a stretch to fork out a tenner for a log of whipped cream, but the difference it makes is astronomical.
Unlike oils or salts, I can’t (read: don’t want to!) be super specific with brands, because most often, the best butter you can buy is the cultured stuff that’s made in your vicinity.
I can, however, give you a rundown of the range of creamed goods you’d benefit most from stocking up on (note - creamed not cream… let’s leave that for next time!).
Cultured butter
The ‘Culture’ here is cultivated in the cream (usually overnight) before it’s churned. They take it to art galleries, teach it a language, encourage it to take up an instrument - that sort of thing. Like kimchi, cheese, salumi and wine, the magic is in the microbes. Cultured butter has a way more interesting flavour profile - it’s slightly acidic (great for cutting through its higher butterfat richness factor), and a heavenly hazelnutty aroma (especially when you cook with it).
Because it’s brimming with bugs, cultured butter is much more temperamental in terms of shelf-life,
For Salties (I’m claiming this term for WC subscribers for obvious reasons) from my neck of the woods, my favourite cultured butter in Australia remains Pepe Saya. I’ve tried plenty of others, but Pierre’s remains the most consistent in quality, accessibility, shelf-life and flavour. Honourable mentions go to King Valley Dairy (nee. Myrtleford), Saint David Dairy and new kid on the butter block Butterfly Factory.
Unsurprisingly, French butter is always a good choice no matter where you are in the world. My favourite Frenchie is Buerre d’Isigny.
I lie, THIS is my favourite Frenchie:
Ghee/Clarified butter:
Ghee, or Clarified Butter as it’s otherwise known, is butter that’s had the milk-solids removed, because they’re what’s holding the butter back from hitting its potential 250-odd degrees celsius smoking point; they’re also, incidentally, what make
The best thing about ghee, is that once you’ve made some, it can last in the fridge for ages! And the process of making it is pretty darn easy too. I learnt it from one of my favourite culinary teachers, Walter Trupp, and now our fridge is always gheed up!
Making Ghee/Clarified Butter:
- Buy a nice chunk of local butter (I usually go for 400g-500g at a time, which lasts about a month)
- In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter on a super low heat (you don’t want the mix to boil, as it’ll displace those nasty milk-solids)
- When the whole thing has liquefied, turn off the heat and allow it to cool completely, then place in the fridge overnight.
- You’ll now have a pot of solid yellow stuff – this is the butter! Use a knife to gently ease the solid block out of the pot. Underneath will be a layer of whitish-creamish liquid (the milk-solids, ironically) – wipe it off with a paper towel.
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Store in a container (preferably glass) in the fridge and use as needed.
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For anyone thinking “that’s preposterous, Italians and Greeks swear by cooking with olive oil, and they’ve got great food!” Yes, they do. But what you’ll find is that their cooking tends to be at a lower temperature. For any Doubting Thomases left in the building, Non-Stick cookware companies will declare your warranty null and void if you cook on olive oil, because when the temp goes high and the oil burns, it takes a layer of non-stick with it. Yep. Case Closed.
Compound Butter:
The only other type of butter you need to know about at this point of the conversation, is the butter of your wildest imagination: compound butter. This basically refers to butter with something added. You can stick to classics like herbs, garlic, or mustard, or go wild with truffle, lavender or chicken skin (this is a thing!). Soften a block of butter, fold in your chosen ingredient, reform into a log and whack in the fridge/freezer.
Just remember: because of the addition of volatile fresh ingredients, compound butters are often best incorporated once the heat is off. Add it to your jacket potatoes, toasties, pasta, roasted veggies, stuff it inside chicken breast, and let it melt into a pool of golden garlicky garnish on top of your steak!
Some Buzzfeed tips for compound butter you may like to see
Here’s my favourite ever butter story, feat. Alain Ducasse, Dan Barber and some inclement weather:
Cheerio!
A — Z.